Saturday, April 6, 2013

Col. Jon Aying, the new commander of the 303 rd Infantry Brigade, yesterday
pushed for seven security programs and approaches to “win the peace” in Negros
Occidental, and to create an environment conducive to development and a lasting
peace.

Aying said the seven security programs and approaches are primacy of the
peace process, security sector reform initiatives, focused military operations,
integrated community defense and public safety, legal operations, grassroots
community development and disaster risk reduction and management.

The identification of the programs was made after the 303 rd Infantry
Brigade, and the Philippine National Police, in collaboration with the
Provincial Planning and Development Office, local government chief executives,
civil society organizations and peace advocates, and other people's
organizations, formulated the Winning the Peace Framework for Negros
Occidental.

Aying said this is needed to support the closure agreement with the
Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (Tabara-Paduano Group),
strongly promote localized peace talks with the Komiteng Rehiyonal-Negros,
conduct peace building activities in support of government and non-government
initiatives to convince threat groups and lawless elements to abandon the use
of violence.

Since the civilian authority is, at all times, supreme over military, they
should take the lead in winning the peace in Negros Occidental, Aying also
said.

“We seek to sustain religiously the activities of the Church Military Police
Advisory Group in order to anchor our operations and behaviors on Gospel
values,” he added.

As to the conduct of military operations, Aying said they will employ the
use of force with utmost respect to human rights, the International Humanitarian
Law and the rule of law. Emphasizing that military operations shall be strictly
focused against combatants and armed threat groups, he said he will not
tolerate collateral damage and will sustain zero violation of human rights.

I shall be harsh to violators of this policy, Aying warned.

Aying also pushed for grassroots community development projects to address
factors that feed insurgency through a comprehensive, transformative and
community-based, as well as sustainable social development strategy in consistent
with the Negros First Agenda.

Gov. Alfredo Marañon assured Aying of the 101 percent support of the
provincial government in his peace and development endeavors.

Lactao, who is now the chief of the Armed Forces of the PhilippinesCommandCenter, was conferred
yesterday by Maj. Gen. Jose Mabanta, 3 rd Infantry Division commander, the
Military Merit Medal, in recognition of his accomplishments in Negros
Occidental.

Lactao also honored peace advocates and civil society organizations in
Negros Occidental, for their contributions to the peace effort of the
Philippine Army.*

From the Armed Forces of the Philippines Website (Apr 6): General Bautista Pledges to ‘Champion Good Governance’

CAMP GENERAL EMILIO AGUINALDO, Quezon City – Swayed by the nationwide momentum in good governance, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff General Emmanuel T Bautista pledged to further build on a “better, more capable and more respected AFP.”“With deep awareness of the great honor and responsibility conferred to me, I pledge to champion good governance and lead the AFP by example,” Gen Bautista said in an awarding ceremony on Wednesday, April 3, where he was conferred a Fellowship in the Institute for Solidarity in Asia (ISA).

The Chairman of the ISA, Dr Jesus P Estanislao, conferred the fellowship to Gen Bautista, saying, “All fellows of ISA are there only for country and for people and we are sure that Gen Bautista and the AFP are there only for country and for people.”The AFP was also awarded the Performance Governance System (PGS) Plaque by the ISA for the high level of excellence it has shown in the pursuit of transforming public service in the country, particularly through the Internal Peace and Security Plan (IPSP) Bayanihan and the AFP Transformation Roadmap.“This is the progress that we have made: we are now closer to bringing decades-old internal conflicts to a responsible end, we have finally began to win the peace, we have reoriented our strategy to nation building, and we have increased our focus in building a more credible defense force,” Gen Bautista said, citing the IPSP Bayanihan and the AFP Transformation Roadmap.ISA is a non-government organization that advocates good governance as a common purpose and a shared responsibility. The PGS is a performance management framework that guides, tracks, and measures developments in the reforms being initiated by government institutions.The PGS Plaque serves as a sign of AFP’s solid commitment to seeing the positive transformation through, and its continuous efforts to translating its strategy map into actions that will produce breakthrough results.

Allow me this beautiful morning to express that the Balikatan exercises we
are launching today are powerful and living symbols of the longstanding
security relationship between the Philippines
and the United States.
These exercises breath life and meaning to our obligations as treaty partners.

Just as importantly, the Balikatan exercises and others like it are
important practical and strategic elements in building the capacity of the Philippines to
secure and defend itself.

The joint exercises we hold every year with the United States are rooted in our
common history and in our shared values. These are roots that run deep.

In four days we will commemorate the uncommon courage of Filipino and
American soldiers who fought side by side in Bataan and Corregidor.

In four days we will honor their heroism and sacrifice - their willingness
to lay down their lives for democracy, freedom and liberty.

Unchanging Common Values

These common and sacred values -- unchanging in victory or in defeat,
immutable in the face of challenges old or new, great or small -- are what held
us together then. These gave us the strength to stand together even in the face
of overwhelming odds.

Today these same values are what make the bonds between our two nations
strong.

These are the values that sustain our security relationship. This
relationship remains robust and vigorous -- forged by our shared sacrifices in
the Pacific War, by our standing boldly together in the dark days of the Cold
War, and in facing today’s current and pressing challenges.

Stronger Security Relationship

Together, we continue to build on that relationship. Just In the past three
months, we’ve had key high level exchanges and discussions centered on our
security relationship.

US congressional
delegations led by the chairmen of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the
Veterans Committee were in Manila.
Defense Deputy Secretary Ashton Carter was also here. This week, I met with
both Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in Washington.

In all these discussions, both sides reiterated their firm commitments as
strategic partners and treaty allies.

Investing in Our Own Defense

These key officials have pledged to work with us to build our own capacity
to defend ourselves.

And defend ourselves we will. The Philippines is investing in its own
defense at levels never seen before.

But we understand clearly that we can increase the value of these
investments through joint training and other agreed activities with our allies.

Joint training with the United
States results in savings on training
expertise and training equipment and other resources -- savings that can be
used instead to purchase more much needed equipment and materiel.

A Crucial Time for Philippine and Regional Security

This year’s Balikatan comes at a crucial time for my country and my region.

For our region, excessive and exaggerated maritime and territorial claims
have not only created uncertainty but have undermined the rule of law. Regional
peace and stability have been placed at serious risk.

For my country, we need to secure our borders and protect our territorial
integrity more vigorously than we have before.

Balikatan, with its complex and comprehensive set of exercises, is an
important contribution in not only preparing both our armed forces to work
together, but also in building my country’s own capacity to defend itself.

I am glad to note that there are exercises that help prepare our two nations
for the increased rotational presence of US forces in approved areas in the Philippines.

This will be crucial in our efforts in the short term to establish our
minimum credible defense posture and in the long term to build a more robust
national defense structure.

Facing Natural Disasters

The Balikatan exercises also address another serious threat to the security
of my country and that of the region - natural disasters. The United Nations
has identified our region as the most prone to natural disasters.

It is significant that there is again a strong humanitarian assistance and
disaster response component to this year’s Balikatan.

Over the years we have shown that working together in facing natural
disasters we are able to save more lives and rebuild more quickly the futures
of those affected.

I am particularly pleased to note that there is a multilateral dimension
once again in this year’s Balikatan, involving a number of countries (invited
are: Australia, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua
New Guinea, Republic of Korea, Thailand, Vietnam).

The multilateral roundtable discussion in this year’s Balikatan will focus
on cooperation on humanitarian assistance and disaster response in our region.
They will be discussing a topic of great importance to all of us, and in doing
so also help build trust and confidence in our region.

A Soldier’s Duty

A diplomat’s greatest fear is that in failing to build peace, soldiers will
have to be called upon to do their duty and place themselves in harm’s way.

This fear is mitigated by the knowledge that allies stand by us. It is
lessened by the knowledge, that our men and women in uniform are prepared to
face the consequences when diplomacy falls short. It is allayed by the fact
that our brave soldiers are willing and able to succeed where diplomacy may fail.

In the Footsteps of Heroes

Today men and women from the armed forces of the Philippines
and the United States
will once again stand side by side for the common good and for the values that
define our two nations.

Your commitment to keep the peace and protect our freedoms reverberates with
the spirit of honor and valor of the Filipino and American soldiers who had
marched before you seven decades ago.

You walk side by side, in the footsteps of heroes, with the same courage,
determination and sense of sacrifice necessary to protect our nations and our
peoples in today’s world.

From the Sun Star-Davao (Apr 5): Lumad rights given ‘high spot’ in Bangsamoro law

KIDAPAWAN CITY -- A representative of the indigenous peoples (IPs) in Mindanao has assured that their rights and interests would be given a "high spot" as they start drafting the Bangsamoro Basic Law, which is needed for the creation of an expanded homeland for Muslim Filipinos.

The law is based on the Framework Agreement agreed upon by the Philippine Government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) last year. Once ratified, it will replace the organic act, Republic Act 9054, which created the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm).

The Transition Commission, tasked to draft the Bangsamoro Basic Law, became operational in February with the appointment of its full membership.

Froilyn Mendoza, a Teduray from South Upi town in Maguindanao and a member of the Transition Commission, said it has been a “battle cry” of the lumads that their ancestral lands and their right to self-determination be recognized.

Timuay Labi (chief councilor) Alim Bandara of the Teduray in Maguindanao has said their tribes are living in oppressive situation under the Armm where the Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act (Ipra) is not implemented.

The Ipra recognizes the rights of the IPs over their ancestral domain and provides for mechanism where these lands can be delineated and turned over to them for their governance, control and development.

The Tedurays and Lambangians, along with the Dulangan Manobo people, had laid claim to their ancestral domains covering an initial land area of 289,268 hectares comprising nine towns in Maguindanao, six towns in nearby Sultan Kudarat, and the city of Cotabato where the tribes are predominantly located.

Mendoza said the IPs have "high hopes" in the Transition Commission, especially so that its chairman, MILF peace panel head Mohaqher Iqbal, has stressed the need for "inclusivity" and respect for the "polarity" of the peoples in Mindanao in the Bangsamoro Basic Law.

"This inclusivity and respect for polarity of peoples will be our stepping stone as to how we will place in high spot the particular and distinct issues of the IPs in the Bangsamoro governance," Mendoza said.

Mendoza, a member of the all-women contingent of the Civilian Protection component of the International Monitoring Team, said the commission will strive to correct what she considered were "historical injustices."

Senator Teofisto Guingona III, chair of the Senate Committee on Peace, Unification, and Reconciliation, also mentioned one of the “injustices” earlier, saying: "We cannot be a nation that writes laws like the Commonwealth Act 141 that declares all ancestral lands as public land."

Guingona challenged the Commission to correct the "flawed moments of history."

Composed of 15 members, seven of which were nominated by the government while eight were recommended by the MILF, the Transition Commission started drafting the Bangsamoro Basic Law following its first meeting last week.

It draws its membership from various ethnic, professional and political backgrounds from within the Bangsamoro.

The Bell Boeing MV-22B "Ospreys", the world's first-ever tilt-rotor aircraft, will have its "Balikatan" debut this April 5 to 17.

The "Ospreys" will be used as ship-to-shore connectors. A US Marine Corps statement said that this will the first time the MV-22B will be used to conduct single and dual-point sling loads from a dry cargo and ammunition ship.

Earlier, the Armed Forces of the Philippines announced that 30 airplanes, of which 20 are from the US, will participate in this year's "Balikatan" Exercise.

The "Ospreys" also features both a vertical takeoff and landing, and short takeoff and landing capability.

It is designed to combine the functionality of a conventional helicopter with the long-range, high-speed cruise performance of a turboprop aircraft.

The MV-22B originated from the United States Department of Defense joint-service vertical take-off/landing experimental aircraft program started in 1981.

The team of Bell Helicopter and Boeing Helicopters was awarded a development contract in 1983 for the tiltrotor aircraft.

The Bell Boeing team jointly produced the aircraft. The V-22 first flew in 1989, and began flight testing and design alterations; the complexity and difficulties of being the first tiltrotor intended for military service in the world led to many years of development.

The United States Marine Corps began crew training for the "Ospreys" in 2000, and fielded it in 2007; it is supplementing and will eventually replace their CH-46 "Sea Knights".

The MV-22B's other operator, the US Air Force, fielded their version of the tiltrotor in 2009. Since entering service with the US Marine Corps and Air Force, the aircraft has been deployed in both combat and rescue operations over Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.

Posted to the PRWC Blog (Apr 5): Statement
of support for the Korean People against US provocations and nuclear threats

Prof. Jose Maria Sison
International League of Peoples' Struggle
April 5,
2013

We, the International League of Peoples' Struggle, are in firm solidarity with
the Korean people and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and
support their current struggle in defense of national sovereignty and
territorial integrity against the war provocations and nuclear threats being
made by US imperialism.

We condemn in the strongest terms the continuing
US military control over South Korea, the constant nuclear weapons in US
military bases and aircraft carriers and the joint military exercises of the US
and the South Korean puppet government. All these violate the national
sovereignty of the Korean people, threaten the DPRK and run counter to the
desire of the Korean people for peaceful reunification.

The war provocations against the DPRK and the Korean
people have recently escalated with the imposition of further sanctions on the
DPRK by the UN Security Council upon the prompting of the US and the use of
joint military exercises with the South Korean puppets to show off US naval
vessels and aircraft capable of nuclear attack and to intimidate the DPRK and
the Korean people.

The DPRK and the Korean people in the north are fully
justified in rallying themselves, mobilizing their combat forces and people's
defense capabilities and reminding the US that it cannot terrorize them with
nuclear weapons because they have their own for the purpose of deterrence and
self-defense. They are demonstrating the futility of US nuclear terrorism and
their readiness to foil any attempt of the imperialists and their puppets to
invade the north of Korea.

The attempts of US imperialism to intimidate
the DPRK and the Korean people into submission have only served to intensify
their unity and fighting spirit, summon their limitless strength, expose the
limits of US imperialist power and vindicate the efforts of the DPRK and Korean
people at nuclear research and development for self-defense and peaceful
purposes.

The futile attempts of the US and its cohorts to terrorize the
DPRK and the Korean people are a major part of the US scheme to impose further
its hegemony over the entire East Asia, to direct and influence developments
not only in Korea but also in China and other countries in the region and to
entrench further US military forces in Japan, South Korea, Philippines and other
areas where the US has gained a military foothold in terms of military bases,
forward stations and visiting forces agreements.

But time is against the
US in seeking to perpetuate its hegemony in East Asia and the whole world. All
efforts of the US to overcome the people's struggles for national and social
liberation and to expand the global capitalist economy under the auspices of
neoliberalism have undermined US global hegemony and brought forward new
capitalist powers. In time to come, the contradictions between the
US-Europe-Japan combine and the China-Russia combine will intensify.

The
intensification of inter-imperialist contradictions will bring about new
conditions and new opportunities for the resurgence of the people's struggle for
national liberation, democracy and socialism. Right now, the prolonged crisis
of global capitalism is already generating the people's resistance and clamor
for radical social change in the imperialist countries and much more so in the
underdeveloped countries. The people's revolutionary struggles are bound to
bring about a fundamentally new and better world. ###

No matter how the military conceals the stench of its latest atrocity, hard evidence points to the fact that the 71st Infantry Battalion was not in an encounter with the New People’s Army at Kidaraan, Brgy. Maskareg, Mabini town on April 3, 2013. The fascist troops led by one Lt. Urca rained a haze of bullets against helpless children who came from a nearby farm, instantly killing 9-year old Roque Antivo, and wounding Earl Antivo and 13-year old Jefrey Hernan.

Unable to defend itself from this gross violation of human rights and international humanitarian law, the military twisted the facts to save face by giving the barefaced lie that the children were victims of crossfire. The military distorted the events on April 3 to pass the blame on the NPA to cover up the military’s gross human rights abuse.

More than an hour before the strafing incident, at 4:30 pm, the front guerilla unit of Guerilla Front 2 under the Comval-Davao Gulf Sub-Regional Command punished the abusive 2nd Scout Rangers Battalion-10th ID in an ambush that killed two fascist soldiers, wounded nine others; two others are still missing. The ambush occurred in Candinuyan, a village that is 15 kilometers away from Maskareg where the strafing incident took place.

At 6am that same day, Red fighters also held a checkpoint and arrested Pfc. Mark Anthony G. Conception, 25, of the 71st IB. While under NPA custody, the custodial force found, upon further perusal of his enlistment papers, that Conception was not anymore in active military duty as of December 2012. Thus, his release from NPA custody shall be undertaken soon once conditions at the ground warrant a safety reunion with his family.

These coordinated NPA actions were active defensive NPA campaigns directed against the Special Operations Team and combat forces of the 10th ID in Mabini-Pantukan-Maco range cluster that are among its priority areas under the Oplan Bayanihan. To insinuate that these NPA operations directly or indirectly killed the child Antivo is the height of gross dishonesty and cowardice. That the 71st IB is the same Army unit responsible for the killing of another child, one 7-year old Sunshine Jabines in Pantukan town, on September 2, 2011, was not incidental. It only indicates that the 71st IB soldiers are children butchers, weaklings who can only engage war against children.

Posted to the anti-communist Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (ANAD) Facebook page (Apr 6): The Reestablishment of the CPP

THE REESTABLISHMENT OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES

By Arthur J. Tariman
National Council Member, ANAD Party-listThe reestablished Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) was founded by Jose Maria Sison on 28 December 1968 – the birthday of Chairman Mao Zedong – to seize political power thru a bloody revolution.

Writing under the nom de guerre Amado Guerrero, Sison published the “Philippine Society and Revolution” , PSR for brevity, to lay down the basic principles of the two-stage revolution in the Philippines based on his dialectical analysis of concrete conditions of the semi-colonial and semi-feudal system.

In that thesis, Sison noted several observations on the Philippine society and history by applying the Marxist-Leninist-Mao Zedong Thought.

Sison used Marxism to examine class struggle, Leninism to review the so-called proletarian revolution and Maoism to adapt the so-called Protracted People’s War , PPW for short, in the Philippine setting.

According to Sison, the essential task of the National Democratic Revolution , NDR for brevity, is “to liberate the people from foreign and feudal domination and establish an independent and democratic Philippines.”

As a Maoist communist party, the CPP listens very well to Chairman Mao Tse Tung advice that a “Revolution is neither a dinner party nor having a picnic, it is a violent overthrow of one class by the other.” According to Mao Tse Tung, “Political power grows out from the barrel of a gun.”

Sison himself once said, “Bloody struggle is the primary form of struggle that we must wage.”

The CPP Founding Chairman would always emphasize that while fighting for the so-called National Democratic Revolution, the People’s Protracted War would also prepare the ground for a Socialist Revolution.

Accordingly, the NDR should be completed first before the Socialist Revolution can be started. As such, socialism creates the foundation for communism.

It should be emphasized here that the NDR has two main components – the PPW and the International Solidarity Works , ISW for brevity. The PPW has pursued two forms of struggle – the armed and the legal.

The general line of the National Political Design of 1969 carries the political line of heightening class struggle and specifies armed struggle as the primary form of struggle.

Thus to put the concept of armed struggle into actual practice, the CPP established the New People’s Army or NPA on March 29, 1969 – same founding day of Red China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

By emphasizing the glaring contrast between the oppressor and the oppressed, Joma Sison aimed to heighten class struggle.

Peasants in the rural areas are to be lured into the so-called agrarian revolution . Workers in the urban areas are organized and agitated to stage strikes against their employers. Youth and students would be continuously subjected to psychological operations to make them drift away from their authorities at home, in school and in the community. And the national bourgeoisie has to be factionalized thru tactical alliances to make it possible to focus the broadest front on the narrowest target.

All these would continuously cause friction in the society that will build up the heat of conflict in the entire country – all paving the way for the attainment of a social condition that would be ripe for the revolution.

However, the strategy of class struggle requires the laying down of the so-called Echelon of Alliances and the United Front.

To accomplish the task of united front building, the CPP founded the National Democratic Front-Philippines (NDFP). The CPP formed Preparatory Commission of the National Democratic Front 1971.

To provide a firm basis of unity for all popular forces forced underground by the martial law regime, the Preparatory Commission of the NDF issued a 12-Point Program , on April 24, 1973, which would be acknowledged and celebrated as the founding day of the NDF. Thousands would eventually join the NDF through revolutionary mass organizations in various sectors.

NDF became the umbrella organization of radical underground organizations after the dissolution of the National Bureaus under the Department on Organization. These radical underground organizations are the National Democratic Underground Mass Organizations (NDUGMO), together with the legal or “open ND” organizations, now served as the base of the NDF.

However, it is the National Politico-Military Design of 1974 that clearly defines the specific character of the PPW. It defined the objective of the PPW as to complete the NDR and to lay down the foundation for the Socialist Revolution.

PPW’s central task is the destruction and overthrow of the enemy rule and the seizure of political power thru armed struggle.

On the other hand, CPP waged legal struggle mainly in four forms. First is the united front building and mass protests, second is the electoral struggle, third is the peace process, and fourth is the International Solidarity Works which is also a form of legal struggle.

PPW’s secondary task is the development of the revolutionary underground and the broad anti-imperialist and democratic mass movement in the cities thru the building of a broad united front.

Under this context, PPW’s objective would be to isolate the government from the people and their support by using the methodology of arouse (should be read as agitate), organize and mobilize or AOM.

Finally the organized masses are mobilized when they are called on in the conduct of mass protest actions against government. Ultimately, PPW aims to divert the people’s support initially to the National Democratic Revolution and eventually to the CPP thru ideological, political and organizational works, in short, IPO.

In ideological work, the people’s rights are being championed thru AOM that the revolutionary ideology the Party embodies becomes acceptable to the masses

In political work, the Party’s constant questioning of the government’s integrity weakens its hold on the people but strengthens the ties between the masses and the revolutionary movement.

In organizational work, the organized sectors are either directly or indirectly linked to the National United Front Commission (NUFC) and the National Organizational Department (NOD) of the CPP.

As a strategy, the Party would conduct IPO works on the basic sectors – the workers and the peasants – then builds an Echelon of Alliances and later forges tactical alliance with the Bangsamoro revolutionary groups in Mindanao like the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

PPW’s general design to seize power took notice that the archipelagic character of the Philippines complemented by its mountainous terrain provides depth for guerilla warfare which should be protracted, i.e., from main islands to small islands, from weak to strong, and by stages: Strategic Defense , Strategic Stalemate , Strategic Offense .

The National Politico-Military Design of 1974 clearly defined the PPW’s strategy of seizing power:

“The long-term task of our Mindanao forces is to draw enemy forces from Luzon and destroy them. In this regard we can cooperate very well with the Moro National Liberation Front and the Bangsa Moro Army.

Our forces in the Visayas can take advantage of our gains in Luzon and Mindanao and contribute their own share in the task of forcing the enemy to split his forces and of destroying them.

On the eve of the nationwide seizure of power, Manila-Rizal shall be caught in a pincer between regular mobile forces from the north and from the two regions of Southern Luzon.”

Under this strategy, PPW’s two main forms of struggle would eventually culminate in general Offensive from the red areas and General Uprising in the white areas (urban and rural).

To better understand the concept of General Offensive and General Uprising, let us backtrack a little further.

The basic sectors being laid down into Echelon of Alliances is the so-called subjective force of the revolution and is a vital element in creating the so-called objective condition of the revolution.

The objective condition of the revolution comes with the creation of a revolutionary environment thru the weakening of the economy as a social condition once the subjective forces are in place.

The communists always believed that the economic forces influence the political forces so does the subjective force influence the objective condition. The political implication is that those who hold the economy wield influence over politics. A strong economy means strength of hold on political power.

The Maoists maintain that economic class conflict would weaken political authorities that will ultimately lead to the seizure of political power. Hence, to attain the required objective condition of the revolution – that is the weakening of the economy – the CPP has been targeting the basic industries thru the mobilization of the basic sectors.

True to the essence of democratic centralism, which is a centralized leadership and a decentralized operation, the CPP has tasked every Regional Party Committee to target the weakening of specific economic bases.

The CPP therefore expects that the weakening of the regional economic bases would lead to general uprising and general offensive to seize political power.

The general uprising within the so-called white areas – both in rural and urban centers – has the following objectives:

• weakening of the state machineries, • isolating the government from the people, • creating a revolutionary conditions, • infiltrating the government, and • sabotaging of government programs.

On the other hand, the general design for general offensive from the so-called red areas in the countryside requires the building of the NPA from the national to local level that would result to the thin spread of the AFP.

It also prescribes the conduct of IPO works with the peasants for horizontal development, and with the indigenous people or IP for vertical development.

The general uprising and general offensive would come during the short-period of strategic offensive that follows the strategic stalemate.

Preconditioning the ultimately failure of its current peace talks with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GPH), the Maoist CPP-NPA-NDF has come up with a five-year plan to advance the so-called people’s war from the stage of strategic defensive to strategic stalemate.

The strategic stalemate stage should not be taken literally to liken the condition to the evenness of government and terrorist forces but on the condition where state apparatus including the local government units, armed services and law enforcement agencies would be afraid and restrained or would perceive to have been restrained from performing their official duties and functions due to the threats and/or influence exerted by the Maoist CPP-NPA-NDF on the duly-constituted authorities.

In its 42nd anniversary message to the NPA last March 29 entitled, “Fight and defeat the US-Aquino regime and fulfill the requirements for advance toward the strategic stalemate,” the CPP Central Committee boldly warned that:

“The Aquino regime cannot take comfort from the notion that the revolutionary movement cannot yet be the ruling system in the next five years or from any scheme for the counter-revolutionary armed forces to destroy the revolutionary movement render it inconsequential or make it capitulate.”

The CPP CENCOM added:

“The revolutionary mass movement is capable of removing the Aquino ruling clique from power in the same manner that the Marcos and Estrada ruling cliques were removed and the Arroyo ruling clique was almost removed. Lessons must be learned from the failure to overthrow the Arroyo ruling clique despite its extreme isolation and unpopularity. Errors must be reviewed and rectified so that the revolutionary mass movement can realize the full potential of the favorable objective situation.”

It further announced that:

“The crisis conditions, the growing strength of the revolutionary movement, the rapid rate at which the Aquino regime is being expose as anti-people, anti-national, anti-democratic, corrupt and brutal are such that the revolutionary forces can build a broad united front and generate a mass movement to isolate and remove the Aquino ruling clique from power in a relatively short period of time.”

One may conclude that the CPP is just boasting by making such bold pronouncement against the PNoy administration. But let us take a close look at its so-called five-year plan and examine one by one its essential components and elements, and the objective condition of the ground in order to determine if indeed it is capable of doing what it is saying; if it can attain victory in five to ten years time from today.

The Party aims to accomplish the following objectives in the next five years:

• “In ideological building, the Party must ensure that all current full members briefly review the Party Constitution and Program and the content of the basic Party course and proceed quickly to accelerate the basic education of the candidate-members in connection with fulfilling the tasks for advancing the people's war in the next five years…”

(Comment: The acceleration of Party education is necessary to facilitate the acceptance of more Full-pledge Members from the ranks of “advance mass activists” especially in the urban areas.)

• “We need to increase our Party membership from the current tens of thousands to at least 250,000 in the next five years or so at the annual average of one Party member recruiting another to become a Party member. Party organs and units at all levels, from the branch to the Central

Committee must assess the Party membership and plan how the current Party members within their respective scopes can be increased…We must be able to deploy more Party members from the ranks of workers and the educated youth for service in the people's army and for mass work and building Party branches, mass organizations and organs of political power in the countryside. We must systematically send urban-based Party candidate-members and mass activists to do social investigation and mass work in the countryside and become Red fighters of the people's army…”

(Comment: It would mean that there would be more Party Members from the ranks of workers, youth-students and professionals joining the NPA in the next five years or before the next Presidential elections.)

• “In political building, the Party must propagate the new-democratic revolution and generate the mass movement by arousing, organizing and mobilizing the toiling masses of workers and peasants and all other patriotic and progressive strata and sectors in both urban and rural areas…

“The urban-based mass movement must grow in strength and advance in order to raise the burning issues affecting the lives of the people, to enlighten and militate the people and press hard against the ruling clique and the entire ruling system. There is no dearth of outstanding issues that should be addressed by the mass movement. The incessant increases in oil prices, the rising costs of living, widespread unemployment, landlessness and homelessness, rural poverty, hunger, the spread of disease and the rapid deterioration of social services all infuriate the people and rouse them to political action…”

(Comment: This means that the Party would increase its united front efforts to correspond the intensification of armed struggle thru an enlarged NPA.)

• “The New People's Army is the main organization of the Party for arousing, organizing and mobilizing the people wherever it operates in the countryside. Its units can effectively engage in mass work and initiate the formation of organs of political power, mass organizations, militia in localities and self-defense units in mass organizations. But responsibilities for mass organizing must be continually passed on to the local Party branches and the mass organizations in order to allow the units of the people's army increasingly to have definite periods of politico-military training and combat duty…”

• “The NPA must relentlessly carry out tactical offensives in order to seize weapons and increase the thousands of Red fighters into many thousands more and cover all the rural congressional districts within the next five years…”

(Comment: The Party objective is to increase the NPA arms stockpile to at least 25,000 rifles at the end of the five-year period.)

• “The revolutionary armed struggle must be integrated with the agrarian revolution and the building of revolutionary bases…”

• “At every given time in the struggle, the Party, the NPA and the NDFP have a definite amount of strength. But through united front work, they can augment, amplify and maximize such strength directly or indirectly through allied forces...”

(Comment: It means an increase in alliance work.)

• “We have long respected and supported the right of the Moro people to self-determination. Their revolutionary struggle benefits ours and ours benefits theirs. We must maintain our alliance with them for our mutual benefit against US imperialism and the reactionary Manila government. The US and the local reactionaries must be frustrated in their scheme to derail or destroy either the NDFP or the MILF in order to turn the full force of the reactionary armed forces against either of them. We are confident that the NDFP-MILF alliance will hold because their common enemy cannot meet the just demands of the Filipino people and the Moro people.”

(Comment: The CPP-NPA-NDF earlier allied itself with the MNLF before it entered into and signed a Final Peace Agreement with the government in 1996.)

• “The New People's Army must be resolute and fierce in strengthening itself and striving to defeat Oplan Bayanihan in the same revolutionary spirit that it strengthened itself and defeated the 14-year Marcos fascist dictatorship and all succeeding internal security plans of the reactionary successors of Marcos. The NPA must raise higher its revolutionary consciousness and fighting capability and intensify its tactical offensives in order to advance from the strategic defensive to the strategic stalemate within one or two five-year plans…

(Comment: The CPP-NPA-NDF aims to advance to strategic stalemate within a time frame of five to 10 years, i.e., from 2011 to 2016 or from 2011 to 2021.)

“The NPA must firmly and vigorously pursue the strategic line of protracted people's war. This involves encircling the cities from the countryside and accumulating sufficient armed strength here over a protracted period of time until it gains the capability to launch the strategic offensive against the enemy holdouts in the cities and seize political power on a nationwide scale…”

• “It must exercise flexibility in the use of tactics of concentration, dispersal and shifting. It concentrates strength superior to that of a target enemy unit for attack. It disperses to deprive the enemy of any visible target or when it conducts mass work among the people. It shifts position when it evades the attack of a superior enemy force and maneuvers to gain time or an advantageous position.”

• “The existing 110 guerrilla fronts must continuously be developed so that all or most of them become company-size fronts and give rise to new guerrilla fronts. They must increase to at least 180 guerrilla fronts in the next five years…”

(Comment: This is in consonant with the objective of one guerilla front for each rural congressional district in the country.)

• “Guerrilla fronts adjacent to each other are clustered to form a wider war theater that enables a wider scope of command, coordination, mutual support and maneuver…”

(Comment: Such is the recent case in Claver where three guerilla fronts had combined their strengths to simultaneously attacked three mining and mineral processing firms.)

• “The Party must direct the formation of various levels of command in order to make effective deployment of NPA units for various objectives on varied scales…”

• “The NPA has already accumulated a critical mass for bold intensification of guerrilla warfare and advance toward a higher stage in the people's war. The people's army must relentlessly launch tactical offensives in order to seize weapons for creating new units, to increasingly change the balance of forces and to move from the stage of strategic defensive to the strategic stalemate. It must aim to accumulate 25,000 rifles in order to develop into the stage of the strategic stalemate…

“Every level of command and every unit of the NPA must be conscious of its current armed strength, estimate and plan or target how many more weapons can be seized within a certain period and how to carry out the tactical offensives to seize weapons. The people's army must always be alert to opportunities for tactical offensives aimed at seizing weapons.

“The whole array of the structure of force of the NPA which should include regional forces, local forces, people's militia and urban partisans must continue to wage intensive and extensive guerrilla warfare on the basis of an ever widening and deepening mass base in order to seize firearms and develop the capability of platoons and companies to wipe out enemy units. The main form of tactical offensives must be annihilative, the objective being to wipe out enemy units in order to seize weapons and demoralize the enemy forces.”

(Comment: Heavily-guarded mining sites are good sources of firearms as proven in the Claver incident and other NPA raids and attacks prior to it.)

• “But certain other tactical offensives must be undertaken to inflict attrition and wear down the enemy forces. These include partisan warfare in urban areas, sparrow warfare, sniping operations, land mine warfare, interdiction of the fuel and supply lines of the enemy and destruction of military vehicles, depots and other fixed installations that are being used against the people's army…”

(Comment: The NPA has already carried out all these instructions.)

• “The extensive and intensive guerrilla warfare will yield additional weapons and additional fighting units, improve the tactics and technique of the people's army and raise higher command effectiveness at every level in terms of formations and territorial scope. It will produce the elements of regular mobile warfare, especially when the NPA companies begin to cohere or increasingly coordinate in carrying out tactical offensives. The new and higher level of warfare will be attained on the basis of the victories of guerrilla warfare.”

(Comment: In advancing to strategic stalemate, the NPA is expected to engage government forces in semi-conventional techniques that would require larger formations such as company or battalion. In the recent Claver incident, the NPA was able to raise a battalion size force without being detected and pre-empted by the government.)

• “The revolutionary armed struggle is facilitated when the reactionary armed forces, police and paramilitary forces tend to disintegrate. Special units of the Party as well as close friends and relatives who are on the revolutionary side must encourage the officers and rank-and-file personnel of the reactionary armed forces to take a patriotic and progressive position on issues and to act in the national and democratic interests of the Filipino people.”

(Comment: The NPA would induce some sympathetic AFP, PNP and other armed services to betray the government by switching side. In the Claver incident, there is no evidence to this effect yet.)

• “In guerrilla fronts, certain alliances can be formed by which local reactionary government units can be used to prevent or counter the worst enemy military operations. But the guerrilla fronts can increase to such a great number that they can cover all or most of the rural congressional districts, reduce or eliminate the power of reactionary local governments, and cohere to form relatively stable base areas.”

(Comment: Such is the current case of the City Government of Davao under the Duterte daughter-and-father administration. A recent media leak revealed the unholy alliance between the Dutertes and the NPA in Davao.)

• “The people's army must dispatch units to arrest for prosecution the plunderers, violators of human rights, local tyrants, the most antisocial criminal elements and enemy informers. Such units must be prepared to give battle to targets of arrest who are armed and dangerous or who head criminal armed groups. The local tyrants and the worst of exploiters include the evil landed gentry, the local warlords and those who grab the land, destroy the environment and rob the people of their natural resources…

“The most effective way for the people to stop the reactionary government from delivering the land and mineral resources to foreign corporations is to build an effective mass movement against them and to allow the people's army to disable and destroy the equipment and other facilities of the antinational and antipeople corporations and their local agents…”

(Comment: This is the pretext used by the CPP-NPA-NDF in staging the simultaneous attacks on three mining and mineral processing companies in Claver on October 3, and similar offensives the last few months.)

In an earlier Message on the 42nd anniversary of the CPP on December 26, 2010 entitled, “Fullfill the requirements for the advance of the people's war from the strategic defensive to the strategic stalemate,” the CPP Central Committee decreed that:

“Enterprises that do not comply with the rules and regulations of the people's democratic government, disregard and violate the welfare and interests of the people, and conduct abusive and antagonistic actions against the people must be banned, disabled or dismantled. These include those that engage in destructive large-scale logging, mining and plantations for export; plunder non-renewable resources; ruin the environment and take land away from land reform. The military forces and security agencies protecting these enterprises are targets for annihilation by the people's army.”

Immediately following the CPP CENCOM pronouncement, the NPA increased the tempo of its attacks on mining sites nationwide, the latest of which was in Claver, Surigao del Norte on Oct. 3, 2011.

On the other hand, take a hard look at the concrete condition in the Southern Mindanao Region as a case in point. The Army’s 10th Infantry Division has stationed a brigade of soldiers in each of the provinces of Compostela Valley, Davao Oriental and Davao del Norte including Davao City. This is not to mention a battalion of the Philippine National Police’s Special Action Force and the Regional Public Safety Battalion 11.

In Davao City – the country’s so-called killing field capital – the Army keep two infantry battalions and a counter-terrorism task force to fight the merged Guerilla Front 52 and Pulang Bagani Company 1 and some parts of Guerilla Front 54.

The consolidated Order of Battle, 3rd Quarter 2010 of the military and the police would show however that the number of NPA fighters did increase in 10ID PA’s AOR.

Despite the grandiose claim of the AFP and the PNP that the NPA has no more than five thousand warm bodies nationwide, the Maoist communist terrorists are still able to conduct successful tactical offensives not just in the Davao Region but also in North-Central and Northeastern Mindanao, Eastern and Western Visayas, Bicol, Southern Tagalog, Northern Luzon and elsewhere in the country.

The NPA is extensively and intensively using Improvised Explosive Devices – the terrorists’ weapons of choice – not just against military forces but also on some civilians as in the case of the recent Maco Massacre.

With threat and intimidation, the NPA is collecting millions of pesos in revolutionary taxes from businesses, individual traders and even from ordinary citizens. In the 4th Quarter of Current Year 2008, the Army 10th Infantry Division’s Joint Components Intelligence Coordinating Committee (JCICC) estimated that the Southern Mindanao Regional Committee, CPP-NPA-NDF was able to generate more than P19-million in revolutionary taxes alone, prompting the defense establishment to tag SMRC as the “mother of all regions.”

The figure was considered conservative as many individuals and businesses that paid revolutionary taxes refused to report and to cooperate with the police and the military as the government appeared helpless in curtailing the illegal activities of the Maoist communists.

Dr. John Whitehall, an Australian anti-communism missionary, had once toured the Philippines to investigate the CPP-NPA-NDF phenomena and concluded that:

“The Communist Party of the Philippines is committed to wrecking the economy of the nation in order to increase the miseries of the masses with the hope that they rise against the government and carry the communists into power.”

This reality brings to front the question the correctness of the military solution to the Maoist communist insurgency problem in the country.

When the NPA’s strength reached a high of some 25,000 men immediately after the EDSA Revolt of 1986, the total strength of the AFP to include the defunct Philippine Constabulary and the Integrated National Police is only around 150,000 or even less.

And yet the Ramos administration managed to bring down the number of insurgents and even split the Party into reaffirmist and rejectionist factions, forcing Joma Sison to order the Second Great Rectification Movement (SGRM) from 1992 to 1998.

To ANAD Partylist and many civil society groups, the military approach is not and is never a solution to the political issue of Communist insurgencies. It is a palliative. It would only prolong and worsen the problem. ANAD Partylist believes that while the military should be tasked to confront squarely the internal armed threats particularly that posed by the CPP-NPA-NDF, the civil authorities especially local officials including elected barangay leaders shall be obliged to take the lead role in addressing insurgencies in their respective localities, to ensure the delivery of basic services and to improve the standard of living of their constituents – in short, to address the root causes of insurgency.

ANAD Partylist also maintained that there is no point for the government to continue talking peace with the Maoist CPP-NPA-NDF as it never has a desire to abandon violence and bloody struggle in order to seize political power.

As the arms of the CPP-NPA-NDF extend to the international arena, ANAD Partylist also sees it fit for the Philippine government and the Filipino people to confront its shadows overseas.

It maintains that CPP-NPA-NDF should be deprived a good reason to agitate, organize and mobilize the people to destroy the nation’s democratic way of life and to illegally seize political power thru bloody revolution from our democratically-constituted government.

Along this line, the AFP is deemed correct in its desired end state in the Internal Peace and Security Plan BAYANIHAN which is to reduce the “capabilities of internal armed threats...to a level that they can no longer threaten the stability of the state and civil authorities can ensure the safety and well-being of the Filipino people.”

Posted to the anti-communist Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (ANAD) Facebook page (Apr 6): Lesson for the Day - The Reestablishment of the CPP (Pt. 2)

PADEPA 101

LESSON FOR THE DAY: April 6, 2013

THE REESTABLISHMENT OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES

... By Arthur J. Tariman National Council Member, ANAD Party-list

The reestablished Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) was founded by Jose Maria Sison on 28 December 1968 – the birthday of Chairman Mao Zedong – to seize political power thru a bloody revolution.

Writing under the nom de guerre Amado Guerrero, Sison published the “Philippine Society and Revolution”, PSR for brevity, to lay down the basic principles of the two-stage revolution in the Philippines based on his dialectical analysis of concrete conditions of the semi-colonial and semi-feudal system.

In that thesis, Sison noted several observations on the Philippine society and history by applying the Marxist-Leninist-Mao Zedong Thought.

Sison used Marxism to examine class struggle, Leninism to review the so-called proletarian revolution and Maoism to adapt the so-called Protracted People’s War, PPW for short, in the Philippine setting.

Posted to the anti-communist Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (ANAD) Facebook page (Apr 7): Lesson for the Day - The Reestablishment of the CPP (Pt. 3)

Pambansa-Demokratikong Paaralan

PADEPA 101

LESSON FOR THE DAY: April 7, 2013

... THE REESTABLISHMENT OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES

By Arthur J. Tariman National Council Member, ANAD Party-list

National Democratic Revolution

According to Sison, the essential task of the National Democratic Revolution, NDR for brevity, is “to liberate the people from foreign and feudal domination and establish an independent and democratic Philippines.”

As a Maoist communist party, the CPP listens very well to Chairman Mao Tse Tung advice that a “Revolution is neither a dinner party nor having a picnic, it is a violent overthrow of one class by the other.” According to Mao Tse Tung, “Political power grows out from the barrel of a gun.”

Sison himself once said, “Bloody struggle is the primary form of struggle that we must wage.”

The CPP Founding Chairman would always emphasize that while fighting for the so-called National Democratic Revolution, the People’s Protracted War would also prepare the ground for a Socialist Revolution.

Accordingly, the NDR should be completed first before the Socialist Revolution can be started. As such, socialism creates the foundation for communism.

It should be emphasized here that the NDR has two main components – the PPW and the International Solidarity Works, ISW for brevity. The PPW has pursued two forms of struggle – the armed and the legal.

Joint elements of the 73IB PA and the Sarangani Police Provincial Office, PNP made the arrest reportedly by virtue of a Warrant of Arrest duly issued by a local court for Robbery with Violence Against or Intimidation of Person, Arson, and Robbery in Band against @ Joyjoy, et al.

Some former NPA members positively identified @ Joyjoy and the other three as the same persons who are subjects of the warrant of arrest.

Confiscated from the group’s possession were one unit of Samsung Tablet, four cellphones, three memory cards and more or less 10 cellphone simpacks. The materials underwent exploitation while the suspects were put under custodial debriefing at the Kiamba MPS PNP where they are detained.

Many elements of Front 73 lied low since late last year due to hardship and demoralization brought about by the lack of support from the people in the upper valley of South Cotabato Province and the western coast of Sarangani Province.

Comment: Alliance For Nationalism And Democracy (ANAD)The Party revived Front 73, NPA-FSMR two years ago not from below but from above. Komisyong Mindanao, CPP-NPA-NDF simply plucked out some 100 armed men from the Southern Mindanao Region (Davao) and dropped them at the tri-boundary of South Cotabato, Sarangani and Sultan Kudarat Provinces because they are in a hurry to extort San Miguel Corporation's subsidiary Daguma Mineral Resources Corp. which planned a coal mine at Brgy. Ned, Lake Sebu town, South Cotabato. As a result, the people in the area did not and have not supported the NPA resulting to the CTs' tactical losses and widespread demoralization. About 50 Front 73 elements remained unaccounted for since late last year. The Bayan-SOCSKSARGENDS along with other CPP Fronts can do nothing "legally" to reverse the set back.

Posted to the anti-communist Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (ANAD)
Facebook page (Apr 7): Photos: NPA 42nd Anniversary Celebration in Bicol: Putting children and women at risk of war and violence. Who's to blame? Who's responsible?

Koalisyong Makabayan or KM's Teddy Casino cannot and will never condemned NPA atrocities in similar quick fashion he denounced alleged military abuses simply because he is part of Asia's biggest Maoist Communist Insurgency. Simply said he m...ay not have bear arm but he is very well part of CPP's shield - the National Democratic Front or NDF.

There is no problem of him and the party-list groups under KM joining the 2013 mid-term elections if they would denounce arm struggle and renounce any tie with the Maoist CPP-NPA-NDF.

The members of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC)) held a press briefing for the first time in Manila on April 3, 2013 morning, facing members of national media from print, television and radio.

The occasion gave an opportunity for the public to know who the members of the BTC are, understand their roles, and be updated on the progress of the GPH-MILF peace process.

The 15 members of the body led by Mohagher Iqbal, concurrently the Chairman of the MILF Peace Panel, were formally introduced to the members of the press.

Iqbal said among the preliminary steps the BTC need to undertake include crafting of internal rules and organizing the secretariat and committees. He stressed they cannot start to discuss most substantive parts of their tasks unless the remaining annexes of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro is discussed and signed by the parties.

He hoped the three annexes will be finished before the May 13 Elections The third annex dwell on normalization which is the “hardest nut to crack” that include the decommissioning of MILF combatants and firearms, the gradual redeployment of government troops to other areas and the constituting of the policing of the Bangsamoro area.

However, Iqbal said it could be a continuing agenda and could be settled as long as the parties continue to discuss it.

Iqbal is optimistic for the success of the BTC having the President Aquino as “sincere partner.” He also said that they need to surmount any obstacles that shall be encountered along the way.

He added they will move forward and will be able to see if there is a need for constitutional amendment. One of the three main tasks of the Commission is to make proposal if necessary for the amendments of the constitution to accommodate the agreements of the Parties without derogating the previous peace agreements.

Members of the media were curious as for the position of the BTC on Sabah issue. The BTC chair and other members said the issue on Sabah claim is not part of discussion of the basic law and it is beyond the mandate of the BTC.

The MILF chief negotiator said Sabah has never been part of the agenda nor part of any peace negotiations.

He added that Malaysia as facilitator to the GPH-MILF Peace Talk is already institutionalized and the two parties have been holding talks since 2001.

Atty. Johaira Wahab, a member of BTC, said the Sabah is a diplomatic issue between the Malaysian and Philippine governments. “As much as we want to comment on our personal stand on Sabah issue, that is beyond our mandate as a group,” she pointed out. “We need to work on our mandate,” she emphasized.

The BTC hoped to finish the Basic Law by 2014 and establish the Bangsamoro Transition Authority by 2015. Once the BTA will be put up, the ARMM will be abolished. Part of the process of crafting the basic law is consulting the Moro people and those that will be affected by the basic law.

The two panels will continue to exist until they will sign an Exit Agreement that will officially terminate the negotiation and when there will be no more issues left to be discussed. An exit agreement will only be signed if and only if all the agreements are fully implemented.

A Third Party Monitoring Team comprised of international representatives will evaluate the implementation of all the agreements and the progress of the transition.

The transition commission will be holding office in Cotabato City. The body will also discuss among themselves how to break any impasse that may be encountered in the course of crafting the basic law.

Fresh from his “productive” trip to Washington DC, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario emphasized that joint training with the US results in savings on training expertise and training equipment and other resources – savings that can be used instead to purchase more much-needed equipment and material.

Del Rosario made this declaration in his keynote speech during the Balikatan 2013 opening at Camp Aguinaldo yesterday as he trumpeted the fruits of his recent meeting with high-ranking government officials of the US.

“This week, I met with both Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in Washington,” he said. “In all these discussions, both sides reiterated their firm commitments as strategic partners and treaty allies.”

Del Rosario also mentioned the recent visits in Manila of US congressional delegations led by Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Congressman Ed Royce, and Defense Deputy Secretary Ashton Carter.

He said these key officials pledged to work with the Philippines to build its capacity to defend itself even as he pointed out that the country, on its own, is pouring money to boost its defense capabilities.

“The Philippines is investing in its own defense at levels never seen before,” Del Rosario said noting that last December, President Benigno S. Aquino III signed the new Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Modernization Act (RA10349), allocating P75 billion for its first five years of implementation.
He said the Aquino administration has so far spent over P28 billion for the AFP modernization program, in contrast with the P33 billion spent for modernization in the 15 years before President Aquino’s term.

Del Rosario acknowledged that the Philippines can still increase the value of its defense spending through joint training and other agreed activities with its allies.

Balikatan supports the development of Philippine defense capabilities as well as the interoperability of Philippine and US military forces.

From the Manila Times (Apr 5): Troops repulse rebels in 20-minute firefight

GOVERNMENT security forces foiled an attempt by members of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) to destroy a banana plantation owned by multinational firm DOLE Philippines in the province of Surigao del Sur, according to a military official.

The encounter, he said, took place at Barangay Dayo-an, Tago, Surigo del Sur at around 1:40 a.m. yesterday.

“The troops were conducting security patrol in the immediate vicinity of the headquarter when they engaged the rebel group numbering more or less 30 men armed with jungle bolos and high-powered firearms in a fire fight which lasted for 20 minutes,” Osias said.

“The NPA were on their way to the DOLE plantation to cut the planted bananas to sabotage the said company but were surprised by the soldiers on patrol,” he added.

Osias said left behind one of their dead comrades who has yet to be identified and recovered one AK-47 automatic rifle with ammunitions beside the dead body.

“The whole division extends its sincerest condolences to the family of the dead NPA member. Another life was put to waste, which is unnecessary, only if the rebels willed to end this conflict peacefully and negotiate with the government,” Osias said.

Last February, some 50 to 100 heavily armed NPA rebels also simultaneously attacked the compounds of Del Monte and Dole in Bukidnon, killing a security guard and injured two others.

The military attributed the attacks to the said firms’ non-payment of the so-called revolutionary taxes to the communist group.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gaz-min earlier said that the series of NPA attacks against businesses, civilian and candidates in the upcoming election has alarmed the defense and military establishments.

He said authorities would have a hard time arresting the situation unless the businesses and politicians that were being subjected to NPA harassments cooperate with the proper authorities.

Gazmin admitted that the AFP does not have enough men, even stretching its forces too thin compared to its vast area of deployment.

“What we are saying is there should be a participation by the big businesses in the Joint Security Coordinating Center between the armed forces and the Philippine National Police so that there will be an exchange of information,” he said.

He expressed belief though that the series of NPA attacks prove that a lot of firms are not giving in to the NPA demand for revolutionary taxes.

GOVERNMENT security forces arrested Friday evening a communist rebel leader and his female companion at a checkpoint in a remote village in Negros Occidental, officials said Saturday.

Western Visayas regional police commander Chief Supt. Agrimero Cruz Jr., in a report sent to Camp Crame identified the two as Reniel Cellion alias Kumpol and Mary Jean Magkikat.

Cellion, according to the police official is a leader of New People’s Army (NPA) operating in Negros Occidental.

Cruz said the two were arrested by elements of the Negros Occidental Provincial Police Office while conducting checkpoint operations at around 8:40 p.m. at Brgy. Dancalan, Ilog town of the said province.

Cruz said the two were in a Suzuki Carry van (YHU-142) flagged down at a checkpoint by elements of the Ilog municipal police station.

Police confiscated from the pair a hand grenade, a .45 pistol and a .22 pistol. They are now under the custody of the Ilog Municipal Police station.

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer (Apr 7): 2 gov’t soldiers injured in clash with suspected Abu Sayyaf banditsTwo Marine soldiers were hurt in a clash with suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits in Talipao town in Sulu on Saturday morning.

Col. Rodrigo Gregorio, spokesperson of the Western Mindanao Command, said members of the 32nd Marine Company under Second Marine Battalion Landing Team were on foot patrol in Kiyutaan village when they encountered an undetermined number of armed men believed to be members of an Abu Sayyaf group.

The wounded soldiers were immediately brought to the Trauma Hospital at Camp General Teodulo Bautista in Barangay Bus-bus in Jolo town.